Day 18: Sevilla to Gibraltar and back

March 7, 2025

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We had walked off the distance to the Gibraltar (UK) tour bus pickup point yesterday evening, so we knew just when we had to wake up to make it there. That wake up was fairly early, so we went to bed at the right time. All signs of calm regulation. But there was a glitch. Dodie turned on her tablet and checked email before falling asleep. There was a message from our sister-in-law. She had read that the UK now required an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), similar to the one the EU has been threatening for some time. Dodie woke me up with this, and I poo poo'd it. The UK would not perpetrate a nonsense like that on Canadians, who are practically their brothers, right? But it was enough of a worry that I check online. The first things I read were that Canadians do not need a VISA for the UK. Hah, so there! Bu then I read that EU people would need the ETA starting in April. Hah, suckers! But then I read that the UK had already invoked the ETA on Canadians and Americans, since last year. Crap!

That triggered a true nighttime nightmare. To get an ETA one had to apply, and pay 10 pounds each. The application could really only be done through the UK's ETA app. So first step, download it. Glitch one, it said my phone was not compatible. After many minutes of "now what", I tried Dodie's phone, and it liked it! Bu the app now went through a convoluted rigamarole, reminiscent of Canada's buggy ArriveCan thing. It wanted the phone set up for NFC, it wanted the passport to be chip enabled, it wanted a photo of the passport (just the right size and composition), it wanted my photo (Dodie would follow, only one person at a time) in just the right lighting, eyes open just right, it wanted the chip data to match its read of the photo, it wanted sort of another photo of me - some kind of outline sketch thing (move closer, move farther, blah blah), and it wanted its 10 pounds by credit card. The credit card, of course, wanted to send a secret security code to me in Canada. After all that it said it decide if I was a terrorist, or whatever, within three days!

Ok, Dodie's turn. Here is where I got to wake her up, and explain that the app wanted all sorts of her attention. Up against that wall, I advised, that's where the light and shadows are least likely to cause the app to complain. And look straight at the camera, no matter if then you can not see to push the shutter!, and so forth.

After all that, the UK emailed to say I was cleared! Hooray! But no word on Dodie (the terrorist). It looked like I was going to Gibraltar on my own. We went to sleep, with that worry in mind. But Dodie the email checker woke me later to say she had been cleared. We could now rest easy for the little rest time remaining!

We set off in the morning, too early, as usual, but finding the city already awake. Our pick up was out by the first main (non-barrio) street. It looked like this:

Our walk to the pick up was by a park, that also was bordered by a bike way.

The park was locked at this early hour, not that these Monk Parakeets care one way or the other.

Eventually some other enterprising travelers joined us at the pickup spot. Three were Canadians, two were Brits. Among the Canadians, the topic was Doug Ford, the gruff newly re-elected premier of Ontario. We all agreed he was a crook, but therefore the right guy to sick on Donald Trump. He had already slapped a 25% export tax on electricity. Go get 'em, Doug! The Brits chipped in that Tesla was dead in UK, and that no one they knew supported any of the American moves, while they are cancelling trips and boycotting goods. Collectively we all then tried to think only of the lovely day we had ahead.

The bus, when it arrived, was not a comfortable minivan but a city bus sized brute. And since we were at its final pickup point, we barely got to sit together. Interestingly the bus was still quite nicely appointed. It was a "Sunsundegui", which is made in Spain by a relatively small bus company.

The tour had a guide on board, who was a German lady speaking good English and Spanish. We still had trouble understanding her, but the commentary and especially instructions were very helpful. We had no real prior idea of how the tour was actually meant to unfold.

Out the window, flat fields of crops rolled by. We started to thing we could have cycled it (if we had had six spare days).

From Seville to Cadiz is a major agricultural area for all of Europe

The bus pulled in to a large and well organized rest stop, with self service cafeteria. I was attracted by coffee and pastry, but again (as always) forgot that this is not France and not Germany. The coffee was miniature, and the pastry, while initially pretty, was dry and not sweet.

Not France, not Germany! 6 euros wasted.

After the rest stop, it became clear why our research on RWGPS had discouraged us from cycling to Gibraltar. The bus entered a region of hills much like those we had been through north of Sevilla yesterday. They were pretty, but did not look like fun. Our efforts to get a photo of them out the bus window didn't work - whizzing by too fast!

Re-boarding our Spanish made bus, at the rest stop.

Our first education about the layout of Gibraltar came with our first sighting of the actual rock. It's a small steep mountain, with a modern city sitting at its feet and a large bay and harbour to its west. Due south, is Africa!

The next curious thing is that access to the city, through customs and such, requires the tourists to walk directly across the runway of the international airport. So before you can line up to present passports, you need to line up as any planes take off or land. Needless to say, guards know well when this is about to happen, and gates remain closed until it is safe.

Had we come by bike, we would have gone this way.

All the Gibraltar immigration man said to me was "Welcome to my country". Never even looked at my passport, let alone my expensive ETA!

The first thing on the tour agenda was two hours to freely walk down Main Street. We found a shop with postcards and bought a small stack, together with the appropriate stamps.

Many of the postcards focussed on the Macaque monkeys that tourists will meet up on the Rock.

Also in the postcard shop were these iconic Cadbury creme eggs. I got conned by the way they were displayed, with Caramel ones on the top, and the proper Creme ones below. Didn't discover this egregious error until we were back in Sevilla. Ate the Caramel anyway!

When we were deciding on the Gibraltar tour, there was a competing option of a dash over to Morocco. The attraction of that for me would have been the chance to try "real" Tagine, and to compare to what we had found in Arles, or made at home. Now my secret scheme for Gibraltar, which is 4 km from Morocco, was to find tagine here. That would mean no British fish and chips - a calculated sacrifice.

Dodie spotted a sign on the street that said "Genuine Moroccan Food" this way. So we took a turn and went off in search of it. But no Moroccan restaurant was in evidence. All we saw was maybe a Moroccan pastry shop. We turned around, disappointed. But in the laneway I spotted a Moroccan looking lady, and I approached her. "Is there a Moroccan restaurant somewhere near here?". "Yes", she said, follow me.

I had lucked onto the actual restaurant lady! But she led into the pastry shop. "Oh no", we said, "We were looking for tagine". "But I have tagine", said the lady. And so it was that the lady (and her mother, I think), made us the unadvertised tagine.

One lamb, one beef, with potatoes, carrots, green beans, olives, peas. Did not detect any onion.

After a bit we asked for orange juice, it took a while to come. We think the lady squeezed it by hand,

This was so great, we had already gotten our money's worth on the tour, but we returned to the meeting spot, and now the real tour began. Gibraltar has a lot of history, even since the British took it over in 1713:

"The Muslim occupation was permanently ended by the Spanish in 1462, and Isabella I annexed Gibraltar to Spain in 1501. But in 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Sir George Rooke captured Gibraltar for the British, and Spain formally ceded it to Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713"

Especially in the 1800's, a lot of walls and battlements and cannons were installed, and in the World Wars the rock was riddled with defensive tunnels. Lots of place names there today reflect this military heritage.

Landport, the original main way into Gibraltar.

This was a bit of the original wall. To the left in this shot is considerable land reclaimed from the sea and now the site of much construction.

The current American administration would do well to visit spots like this.

We boarded some smaller tour busses, and these climbed the rock for us, affording great views, and arriving at two of the major destinations. These were St Michael's cave - a large cave system with many weirdly shaped stalactites and stalagmites, artistically lighted; and areas where the monkeys hang out.

About the monkeys, we were ominously warned that they would swipe our things and not to have food about us or to leave anything open. In practice, they seemed bored with us, and might respond, rather lackadaisically to peanuts.

First, so views from on high:

At Europa Point you can see Spain, Gibraltar, and Africa. This mosque was a gift of Saudi Arabia. The loop at the top is closed, our guide said, because this is the last European mosque before Mecca.

St Michael's Cave, with its psychedelic lighting and many shapes:

Despite not doing much "monkey business", the monkeys were entertaining, and with arresting, strangely human faces.

It was rather tedious to reverse all the steps we had done - minibus down the mountain, walk across the run way, through immigration, onto the big bus, back to the rest stop, and on to Sevilla. But it had been worth the effort. We only scratched the surface of the place, of course. There is lots more to know about its history, ecology, architecture, people, etc. But we did a lot for one day, and it was great!

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Kelly IniguezThat was an interesting day. Your middle of the night experience with the crossing permission is totally something that I would do!
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3 weeks ago

Karen PoretThank you for that tour! Most interesting and educational!
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3 weeks ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Kelly IniguezThe day was great but the middle of the night thing was unnecessary excitement.
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3 weeks ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Karen PoretWe did not expect the tour to be so interesting. Ahead of time we thought it would be a large rock and monkeys so we were most pleasantly surprised.
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3 weeks ago